Dodonpachi Maximum Blasts Off On October 26

Get your trigger finger ready because Cave has another vertical scrolling shooter coming on October 26. Dodonpachi Maximum has ships from Dodonpachi: Blissful Death and Dodonpachi: Resurrection to pilot. The game also has remixed tracks from both games by composer WASi303.

Dodonpachi Maximum’s difficulty changes and gets harder for better players. Beginners can enter bullet hell in easy mode and hone their skills for the main game.

Dodonpachi Maximum will cost $11.99, but at launch you can get the game for just $6.99. The launch price will be available until October 29.

Is this the same as the WP7 version? A tad more expensive though… that one was $5.

Casey McMahon

Excuse my ignorance. Is this a port of the original Dodonpachi?

neo_firenze

Nope, it’s an original game. Was made for Windows Phone 7 platform and looked like it was going to be exclusive… guess that’s not the case though.

malek86

But I hope they added a lot of content or something, cause it costs more than double, and hopefully it isn’t just “because they can”.

neo_firenze

Well, iOS version only costs $2 more than the WP7 game during week 1, so if price is a concern get in early. And heck, I’d MUCH rather pay an iOS premium and actually get to play the game period – as opposed to having it stay Windows Phone only, where I don’t own or plan to own the device and won’t get to play it at all. iPad users also get a larger screen experience that really benefits Cave’s shooters, and is something I’d DEFINITELY pay an extra few bucks for over a phone-only purchase (though Universal app means I do have the choice of which hardware to play on).

I really wouldn’t have expected Cave to price it differently on iOS, they have lots of games already out on iOS with similar pricing structure so keeping DDP Maximum consistent is fairly unsurprising. Changing it up for this release affects the rest of their iOS releases.

DDP Maximum’s WP7 pricing may well have been more of an experiment to see if they could break into the WP7 market with their first game for the platform. They might have also been subsidized by Microsoft a bit, given the 360 developer connections and Microsoft desire to get a few games on their mobile OS. I suspect WP7 version sales didn’t go so well, given that there are far fewer WP7 devices out there and a far smaller market for games than iOS or even Android, and no existing Cave fanbase from several previous games like they have today with iOS. Likely a reason they’re publishing this once WP7-exclusive on iOS to begin with, where it probably projects to make a lot more money.

I also suspect that most people who would buy a Cave shooter on their mobile device for $5-7 will also buy it for $10-$12. If you’re Cave, why leave that money on the table? I can’t really begrudge them for profit-seeking, that is kind of the point of a company.

pentarou

Their last two IAP schemes (DDP-DOJ ship powerups, Mushi Futari BL boss rush mode) left a REALLY bad taste in a lot of mouths. I’ll buy the game at this price point but I’m super wary of what they’re going to try and pull this time.

neo_firenze

Those IAP (and Deathsmiles, while we’re on the topic) were pretty easy to just ignore though, and it’s not like they locked truly compelling gameplay away.

I simply don’t care about such things. Give me a good core game, maybe an arrange mode, and I’m good.

CirnoLakes

Sigh, no matter how much I hear, phones and pads sound like a terrible platform for bullet hell games and STGs in general. You literally don’t want your finger on the screen you want to navigate through bullets with a tiny hitbox.

Also, a touchscreen seems like a terribly imprecise method for moving around in. Touhou purists don’t even like STG play without a keyboard. And indeed it seems to work a bit better than a gamepad. But touchscreen.

I just… no, seems awful. I’ve tried playing SNES games with my Android phone and it’s pretty much useless for anything other than jRPGs. I don’t want to play DoDonPachi with it by any means.

neo_firenze

From the sound of your post, you haven’t actually PLAYED any of Cave’s
iOS/Android/WP7 shooters. They control wonderfully and are quite precise. I understand a little reservation, I had that too. But actually giving it a try shut me up. Don’t judge Cave based on crappy virtual d-pads on emulators or some other badly designed games, they really do a great job – their vertical shooters are some of the top highlights on iOS if you ask me.

They’re designed to control by touching anywhere on the screen, and your finger movement in any direction corresponds to the ship. Particularly on a tablet, you can also play with a somewhat smaller game screen with a border area solely to give you a place to use your finger without blocking anything on the screen. Really though, I tend to prefer full screen and just touching in a spot that feels comfortable.

Your example of “Touhou purists” is a perfect illustration of people being able to get used to an alternate input device. Keyboard is NOT a traditional shooting game input device. Arcade stick and buttons is the original, and in most genre fans’ opinion, BEST method. But the Touhou people who like keyboards are using an input device that many traditional shooter fans think is positively insane.

I’m not saying touch control is the best way to play. Give me my Seimitsu stick any day for the ultimate in control. But it’s a heck of a lot easier to put a phone in my pocket or an iPad in my bag than it is to lug around an arcade stick, monitor, console and electric generator for on-the-go play. Or an arcade cabinet ;)

CirnoLakes

True, the traditional STG method is most certainly a an arcade stick. Though keyboards do work surprisingly well. Touhou fans would do well to remember that. And just for the record I’m not arguing that the keyboard is the best method. I’m not such as STG newbie that I grew up on the keyboard for playing them as opposed to traditional arcades.

I still have a hard time imagining being able to play an STG well on a touch-pad, and I haven’t tried it because of this. But you’ve made a very good argument to the contrary. I may just eventually try it out on this platform, anyway.

neo_firenze

By the way… DDP Maximum is particularly interesting in that it’s Cave’s first traditional shooter designed from the ground up for touchscreen devices (Bug Panic is not a traditional shooter). I’ve not played the WP7 version, but I have read comments that it plays particularly well because it was designed from the ground up to not require much button pushing. Maximum is designed around portability/quick play too, it’s a level-by-level score attack sort of game where you unlock additional levels by meeting goals in the levels you have available.

The previous Dodonpachi and Mushihimesama iOS games have been very good, but Espgaluda II could get a little more frustrating due to having more complex controls (more virtual buttons) in the non-simplified control schemes. That’s actually why I always preferred Espgaluda II’s iPhone mode, playing more to the touchscreen’s strengths made for a really great arrange mode. And Deathsmiles, though I LOVE it on arcade/360, is certainly my least favorite of Cave’s iOS shooter ports – it just doesn’t translate as well with the left/right shots taking up screen real estate and being a little tricky to hit precisely without blocking your view.

It’s interesting that it’s coming to iOS now, as I thought it was WP7 “exclusive”. Don’t know if that was always some sort of timed exclusivity to Microsoft, or if it just didn’t sell too well on WP7 and Cave is trying to make more out of their investment. Seems like a no-brainer though, that they can sell to a large iOS user base where Cave already has a substantial library and many existing fans.

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